Correlation of Platelets Count With Endoscopic Findings in a Cohort of Egyptian Patients With Liver Cirrhosis

Portal hypertension is a common complication of liver cirrhosis that can lead to development of esophageal varices (EV). They are abnormally dilated veins within the wall of the esophagus that lead to haemorrhage (1). Majority of patients with cirrhosis will develop EV at some point, and about third of these patients will have at least one bleeding episode because of rupture of a varix . For this reason, screening endoscopy for detection of the presence of EV should be part of the diagnostic work-up in patients with cirrhosis. This is a very important preventive step for identification of those patients with variceal bleeding risk and furthermore, identification of patients in urgent need for prophylactic treatment.

All guidelines stress on screening endoscopy for early detection of EV in cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension. However this approach is limited by its invasiveness and cost effectiveness issues of screening endoscopy .